This essay looks at Google's rapidly expanding project to digitize millions of books at a number of major libraries and evaluates this research tool for urban historians.
Jason Epstein , "Books@ Google," New York Review of Books53 (October 19, 2006), http://www.Nybooks.com/articles/19436, is the best short introduction to Google. For a full corporate biography, see David A. Vise and Mark Malseed, The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media and Technology Success of Our Time (New York: Bantamdell, 2005). Epstein also reviews John Batelle, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (Nicholas Brealey, 2005) and William Millerand with Rita M. Pellen, eds., Libraries and Google ( Haworth, 2006).
2.
As quoted in Siva Vaidhyanathan, "A Risky Gamble for Google," Chronicle of Higher Education, December 2, 2005. Other estimates run as high as 32 million-see Kevin Kelly, "Scan This Book! " New York Times Magazine, May 14, 2006 (accessed March 23, 2007).
3.
"European Libraries Fight Google-ization," Deutsche Welle, DW-World.DE., April 27, 2005, http://www.dw-wordl.de; Vaidhyanathan , "A Risky Gamble for Google." California's contract with Google provides for the digitization of at least 2.5 million books including those under copyright. See Jeffrey R. Young, "U. of California Will Provide Millions of Books in Google's Digitization Project," Chronicle of Higher Education53 (September 1, 2006), A59.
4.
"Google Print Outshines the European Digital Library," http://www.cafebabel.com; "Harvard-Google Project ," Harvard University Library, http://hul.harvard.edu/hgproject/index.html; "Madrid University Joins Google Book Scan Plan," ABC News Online, September 26, 2006, http://www.abc.net.au; " News from the Library of Congress," November 22, 2005, http://www.loc.gov/today/pr; "Google'sDigitalLibraryofAlexandria," August 13, 2006, http://www.Googlesystem.blogspot.com. Josephine Wolff, "University Library Joins Google Book Search," February 6, 2007, Dailyprincetonian.com; "TheUniversityofTexasLibrariesPartnerwithGoogletoDigitizeBooks" (press release), about/news/google/January 19, 2007, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/ ; "University of Virginia Joins Leading Research Libraries in Partnership with Google to Increase Discovery of Knowledge-And to Offer Library Books to Global Audience" (press release), November 14, 2006 , http://www.lib.virginia.edu/ pressroom/uvagoogle/; "UW-MadisonJoinsMassiveGoogleBookProject," October 12, 2006, http://www.News.wisc.edu/13010.html . In the one year since this paragraph was written in March 2007, Google Books has added the following libraries in whole or part: the Bavarian State Library, the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne, the Boekentoren Library of Ghent University, Keio University (Japan), Columbia University, Cornell University, and the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (a collaborative of ten large Midwestern state universities).
5.
There are rivals to Google, notably the Open Content Alliance and the Universal Digital Library. In my judgment, neither has or is likely to have the quantity or quality of Google. The former has especially strong resources in the northeastern United States and Canada, the latter in languages other than European.
6.
At least to judge from the online press releases cited above. However, the details of the contracts are secret.
7.
"European Libraries Fight Google-ization."
8.
Interview with Jeffrey Burds, February 5, 2007.
9.
Young, "U. of California," A59.
10.
Jeffrey Goldfarb , "Book Sales Get a Lift from Google Scan Plan," Yahoo News, October 6, 2006, http://news.yahoo.com .
11.
Heidi Gautschi , "Google On en Parlera: French Publisher Sues Google Book Search," Econtent Magazine, September 2006, http://www.econtentmag.com. Jeffrey Tobin, "Google's Moon Shot," The New Yorker, February 5, 2007, http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070205fa_fact_toobin , summarizes these issues from an American perspective.
12.
"One College Librarian Worries about Atomizing Books," Chronicle of Higher Education51 (June 3, 2005), A25.
13.
Jean Noël Jeanneney, Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge: A View from Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006). Jeanneney has gone so far as to accuse Oxford University of opting for Anglo solidarity over European patriotism for sharing its books with Google. Euroeana, the European project, is supposed to go online in November 2008 at http://www.europeana.eu/. To the extent that it will include images, photos of artifacts, and some archival materials, it will be a significant improvement on Google Books. However, it is apparently having significant funding problems. The Bibliothèque Nationale has its own Web site, Gallica2, which is increasing by 100,000 items a year.
14.
For more detail on this, see my article: Clay McShane, "Google Books for Mobility Historians," Journal of Transport History28 (September 2007), 131-38.
15.
Available in full text: Charles Loring Brace, The Dangerous Classes of New York and Twenty Years Work Among Them ( New York : Wynkoop and Hallenbeck, 1872); Alexander Easton, A Practical Treatise on Street or Horse-Power Railways: Their Location, Construction, and Management ( Philadelphia: Crissy & Markley, 1859); Q.A. Gillmore, A Practical Treatise on Roads, Streets, and Pavements (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1896); William Dean Howells, Suburban Sketches (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin , 1884); Edward F. O'Day , ed., Report on a Plan for San Francisco by Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett (San Francisco: Sunset Press, 1905); Jacob August Riis, How the Other Half Lives ( New York: Scribner, 1890); Charles Mulford Robinson , The Improvement of Towns and Cities, or the Practical Basis of Civic Aesthetics (New York and London: G. P. Putnam, 1901); George E. Waring, Street-cleaning, and the Disposal of a City's Wastes (New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1897).
16.
Julian Winsor , The Memorial History of Boston Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts: 1630-1880 (Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1880-1881).
17.
Daniel Horsmanden, A Journal of the Proceedings in the Detection of the Conspiracy Formed by Some White People, in Conjunction with Negro and Other Slaves, for Burning the City of New-York in America, and Murdering the Inhabitants( New York: Printed by James Parker, at the new printing-office, 1744); Ebenezer Howard, Garden Cities of To-morrow ( London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1902); William L. Riordon, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics, Delivered by Ex-senator George Washington Plunkitt, the Tammany Philosopher, from his Rostrum-The New York County Court-house Bootblack Stand ( New York: McClure, Phillips, 1905 ).
18.
. . ., Plan of Chicago Prepared under the Direction of the Commercial Club(Chicago: Commercial Club, 1909) (also known as the Burnham Plan, although libraries do not catalog the original edition that way); Robert Hunter, Tenement Conditions in Chicago (Chicago: City Homes Association, 1901); James D. McCabe , New York by Sunlight and Gaslight ( Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, 1882); Frederic W. Speirs, The Street Railway System of Philadelphia: Its History and Present Conditions, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, 15th Series, III-IV-V (Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1897).
19.
For a contrary, much more negative view of scan quality and of Google Books in general, see Robert B. Townsend, "Google Books: Is It Good for History? " American Historical Review Perspectives, September 12, 2007, http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2007/0709/0709vie1.cfm (accessed March 22, 2008).
